Please Share with Us

First and Foremost, we want to thank everyone for the love and support you have shown us, both in preparation for, and in celebration of, our marriage. We especially want to thank everyone who braved the weather on the night of the eight tornados. What an adventure! While we had amazing photographers, and a photobooth set in the future (didn't you notice?), we know each of you captured video and photos of our celebration, and we can't wait to see our wedding through your eyes!! Please follow the link above and upload any media you have from the night.

There have been so many questions since our marriage, that we will try to answer here. 

Where will you be living? Our new address is 211 Perry Street, St. Charles, Missouri 63301. Perry Street was Matt's first home purchase, and will serve as our first home together. No, Denise is still not fully moved in two months later. Her lease is up in August, so the happy couple will keep enjoying the two pools, gym and pond with lovely wildlife (including swans!) until then. But mostly, there's just no time to pack!

Will Denise be changing her name? It depends. (Such a lawyer answer, right?) Having a late in life marriage makes this a difficult decision. While Denise always imagined taking her husband's last name without question, she has built a well-known brand around her maiden name 'Childress,' opening her own law firm Childress Legal, LLC, in 2019., and receiving most client referrals through name recognition. However, Denise is excited to announce she will be making a judicial bid to take the bench in St. Charles County in the very near future. St. Charles County is getting a new Associate Circuit Judge position in the summer of 2023, to be filled by Governor appointment (so if you have any connections, put in a good word!), followed by a judicial election. So, to answer the question, Denise will remain Attorney Childress, but, if she takes the bench, will become Judge Barker.

Where is my thank you card? We have been overwhelmed by the love and support of each of you, even those of you who could not make the event and unexpectedly sent gifts anyway! With the slow move of residence, the returned focus on each of their individual businesses, the judicial bid, a couple work trips, and a few unexpected deaths, life hit us and never stops. Thank you notes are still coming, however, and will be accompanied with updated photobooth prints with the corrected year (Great Scott!). If you do not receive a thank you note by the end of summer, please contact either Denise or Matt. We have received a few gifts, both through the mail and in person, that did not have cards or notes to allow us to properly ascribe our thanks!! We would love to know the senders of these mystery gifts, so please don't think we forgot you!!

Where can I see your wedding photos? When we receive our professional photos, we will dedicate a separate page on this website to sharing those, so check back often! We expect the photos by July.

Who did you rent the party bus from so I can make sure I never make that mistake?  

If anyone was wondering which transportation vendor we used that so graciously gave us THREE buses on our wedding day, when we only booked one: we used Wine Shuttle Bus. Did you hear about this awful saga? If you didn't hear, keep reading. It was an epic failure. We hate to write negative reviews, but this service should come with a warning:

The first bus didn't make it off the lot of the church, where it first arrived to pick us up. The second bus was full of another party's coolers, personal items, half drank beers, and other trash. That driver informed us he was in the middle of another job and would have to go pick that party back up before we were scheduled to be delivered to the reception hall. 

Well, that bus broke down, too, after just two stops within a square mile of each other, so we're taking an educated guess that they never got their things. The driver went under the engine with a fire extinguisher due to the smoke. This bus leaked fluids all over, including battery acid which got onto the bride's brother's hands and into his mouth. 

The third bus they sent eventually got us to our reception hall, after we were warned not to get too close to the doors while the bus was in motion because they didn't want to bungee them shut, and they would open if we fell into them. That bus was too small for the wedding party, with people having to sit on the back of the seats in the windows. 

These were objective problems; we're leaving the additional subjective issues out, like the fear that we'd lose a tire on the highway because the secondary driver (there were two people) was squatting and staring intently at the front wheel before we had all boarded the third bus.

Of the 7-8 locations we intended to travel to get pictures on our wedding day, we made it to two. We can't get the chances to go to those places or to make those memories back. You'll see no photos of Denise in her wedding gown with Matt & Holly since we weren't able to make it home to her to take family photos in our first home together. Or photos at the Laundromat, Matt's first commercial business - we had planned so many fun pictures there with our photographer!! Or at the Pine Room. Or with Tia, Carlos, Selena & the gang taking Tia Tequila shots at Tia and Poncho's (they were waiting for us to arrive), or in the mysterious wine caves behind our house to which we had access if we just had transportation, or along main street or in any parks. 

What we are grateful for, though, is having such a fun, loving, and supportive wedding party to lift Matt and Denise up as we made the best we could with that awful situation, who sat on top of each other and in windows, who loaded and unloaded coolers and bags and other things onto and off of three separate buses with smiles, and who trudged on foot in high heels to a location we hadn't intended to visit to have some impromptu, fun shots that have created so many wonderful, albeit unexpected, memories.